Keep in mind though that a lot of NPC chatter in the trilogy, which is exactly what Diana’s conversation with Vidal was, is just a lot of Easter egg talk and nods to things the player could have done, but which storywise could not have happened as they describe, or at least very unlikely. So although Diana said a lot of correct things there, any convo between NPCs that aren’t hints to kill opportunities should have a grain or two of salt ready.
I think this post from @Tiki2970 explains it very well.
Obviously at this post in the thread, we was debating how Freelancer would work by having the Campaign targets walking around when it’s clearly set sometime after the H3 Campaign.
@Tiki2970 gave us the above summary about ET’s and compared the brief similarities with Freelancer.
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(Im replying to a comment from november, but F it:)
Volcano hot take: Freelancer takes place post-7DS, with the main mission targets in Freelancer simply being 47’s memories of his original hits, as he’s reminiscing and reflecting on better times with Diana… 
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I’m so glad your joking with this post 
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I mean, the entire premise of “analyze the ripples in their digital profile” or whatever bullshit was created was always laughable to me. It just makes no sense.
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It makes sense; watch and see who within their social reach reacts, and in what way, that connects to any other known persons or activities associated with the syndicate, and see if anyone mentions informing insert title of syndicate leader here about the incident.
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What are they doing to communicate? Publicly tweeting each other?
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They’re making tik-tok videos. 
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The safehouse itself is covered in foliage. And, I’d have to check again, but I’m pretty sure the forest is really dense, meaning he’d have enough cover on the road emerging from his safehouse.
There seems to be plenty of foresight to prevent it being spotted from satellites.
Guarantee they’re finding them on reddit
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Tweets, emails, instagram posts, whatever. Obviously not openly talking about illegal activity, but Diana is simply looking for an increase in activity after reports of syndicate member deaths have gone out. Who starts sending messages to others asking if anyone knows what happened, who did it, was anything found, etc., using words or phrases that might seem like code, and does activity by the syndicate change in areas where they’re believed to have a presence. Things like that. She’s watching for the ripple affect online.
That foliage isn’t thick enough to camouflage completely, and satellites do have other visions in their lenses, hence why Diana is able to follow along when 47 kills a target and he’s not even near them: infrared satellite.
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Some remnants of the ICA or Providence might end up tracking 47 down at the Safehouse perhaps? If that is the case, I hope the Safehouse doesn’t end up being destroyed or damaged in some way which results with 47 moving away? it’s too much of a cool asset and I’m hoping it becomes 47’s permanent base as we move forward with future games post Freelancer 
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ICA would be more likely, since everyone prominent in Providence is dead and all its subsidies that made up the bulk of the organization were only loosely tied together. ICA on the other hand only lost Hush, Royce, and the agents in Berlin, and the rest all had to just go into hiding and not speak to each other after they got whistleblown, discounting any low-level folks who might have been arrested. So the whole agency is still out there, it’s members, all knowing who was responsible, and once the heat dies down, stands to reason some of the board members might ring up some of the agents looking for work and ask if they’d like to get back at 47 for ruining everything.
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Insert angry crying wojak. 
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Very valid point to be fair. I’m sure the ICA will at least attempt to get back at 47 and Diana in some way, but when it happens remains to be seen I guess.
I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll say it again, a very good way to piss people off is to just reboot the thing you told us was dead, and undo an ending. Like “Ha har, you expected actual consequences audience?!, Nah, they just laid low!”. It’s a played out writers cheat that even comic books get criticised for using too much. There should be consequences for 47’s actions. Let the ICA die, in every respect.
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Not gonna happen. As I’ve mentioned before, the ICA is too closely tied to the series lore to ever just let it go, and it’s come back before, twice already in the course of the series, and one of those times was even when it was exposed to the public. The ICA is not a single, solid entity, the one 47 destroyed wasn’t the same one Diana did in Absolution, which in turn wasn’t the same one destroyed in Blood Money. Its skeletal structure was the same and the old records remained intact, but it was new skin and flesh.
And no, there don’t have to be consequences for 47’s actions. Not only should the ICA’s destruction not been part of the story in the first place, but that same excuse is what is used to kill off major characters at the very end of a series after they’d spent the entire length surviving, and what is the reason given? “Well, there needed to be consequences!” Bullshit, make different consequences, you don’t just decide make someone or something that has made it all the way through a series just die off at the very end as if everything they’d done to make it this far just slipped their minds. It’s a cheap, shock-value move.
There’s no reason why an organization that has been with the series since the beginning and has been destroyed twice since then and come back should be tossed out now. And consistency isn’t a concern; Blood Money and Absolution both ended on stories with no resolution that were never addressed in their sequels, so a revived ICA wouldn’t need one either, even though there are literally two explanations already built in: the agency’s members are still out there, like I said, and as I’ve also said in the past, Diana and 47 can’t do this alone forever, and the end of H3 makes clear that they never want an organization as powerful as Providence to rise again, so they will need an organization of their own to carry on the work after they are gone. The money made from their freelance work can be used to reestablish the ICA under Diana’s administration and vision.
Unless the future of the franchise is the same nose-in-the-dirt approach Freelancer is going to take, which is not an eager prospect for future installments, then that is what needs to happen.
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Yes there does. And the deaths that do happen are handled pretty well, so to suggest that this can’t ever happen is utter nonsense. This is just you saying “I don’t like that they changed the status quo and i’m gonna complain about it until they change it”, which doesn’t make it bad storytelling.
If nothing changes in the status quo, then little to nothing is developed. It’s not a cheap “shock value” move, it’s an entirely reasonable move to make, with enough context given to make it feel justified.
You’re just guessing that the ICA are still out there, fragmented but still able to reconvene. It’s fan fiction and fan theories, nothing in the lore suggests anything like this is going to happen. Hell, the fact the developers removed all traces of the ICA Being mentioned in freelancers’ briefing suggests they wanted to distance themselves from undermining their own ending.
I expect a new agency to form eventually, but not the ICA inherently. But that is me guessing and theorising, not trying to find “in built” reasons in lore IOI haven’t made. Move. On.
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You will never learn.
No, there doesn’t. Maybe you want them, maybe you think there should be, it doesn’t make it so.
I never suggested that it can’t ever happen, you’re assuming that that’s what I’m saying. And no, deaths handled at the very end of a long series after having survived all that time are hardly ever handled well or believable. (Tony Stark from MCU, Carl Grimes from The Walking Dead, Rachel from Animorphs, everyone who died at the end of Harry Potter, the list goes on)
I didn’t say it was bad storytelling, I said it shouldn’t have happened. Not the same. And everything you’re saying is just you not wanting the status quo to be restored because you don’t like it. As usual, you are accusing me of the very thing that you yourself are doing. You do this with every argument I’ve ever seen you be involved in, whether it’s with me or someone else, and it’s astounding that you don’t seem to have realized it yet.
Nothing needs to be developed. This series is composed of individual stories that we go and kill this important person doing bad things. The greater story around that is always just about who is making it happen for a wider conspiracy. Happens every game, and at the end, it had always reset itself. Hitman has never developed, story-wise, and has never needed to, not in any meaningful way. And I will absolutely die on this hill of the ICA’s destruction not being necessary, should not have been included, and should be undone in the future after we have our fun with Freelancer.
It’s common sense. 47 didn’t kill them all, he just exposed them. As soon as they saw all their info was online, what do you think the ICA higher-ups did? Exactly what the Partners tried to do, and go into hiding. The agents? They already were staying hidden and on the move, they just needed to stay undercover. Some of the mid-level people? Maybe they got arrested, but the bulk of the organization is still out there, hoping not to be found, trying to think of what they’ll do for work, and likely swearing vengeance against 47 and Diana.
I didn’t make the reasons built in either; they’re there. IOI themselves left things that way. They have 47 and Diana continuing to work, not just for the sake of making money, but for a moral crusade that would end when they stop, meaning that logically they have to expand. IOI set that up. IOI also did not make any explicit content showing that everyone involved with ICA was killed or arrested, so they themselves created the situation where its remnants are still out there. Logic, reasoning, rational thinking; when the story doesn’t provide the direct answers, but has hanging threads, these are the tools that can be used to fill in the gaps. It’s not wild guesswork or wishful thinking, it’s picturing the possible outcomes from what bits have been made explicit.
No.
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I think given the finality of Hitman 3’s ending, ICA is officially dead and buried.
I can see the idea of certain members going into hiding to save face, but even if there were any small remnants left, intent on getting back at 47, he’d take them out the moment they peek their head out, easy-peasy.
They’re barely a threat, and shouldn’t be considered one at this stage.
Going back on this, with some shock “OMG the ICA wants revenge, built up a small army, turns out exposing them didn’t kill them after all!” would be a very cheap way to bring them back into the fold, after so much of the game was about 47 cutting ties with them and effectively “killing them” in the public eye, by exposing all their secrets.
I can definitely see the ICA make a return in a future, not-connected entry to the WoA, either as some malicious corrupt agency again, or something that hires/recruits 47. But the events of WOA would have had no effect on this version…
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Right, the WoA era is over after Freelancer, the next entry, just like all the others before it, can easily insert us back into that world years later with past plot threads resolved offscreen and never discussed, with us right into the new storyline, and ICA being back, on the conditions I’ve mentioned before, would be quite easy.
Although, I question that remark of so much of the game being about cutting ties with them. If you’re looking at H3 specifically, yeah, ok, but I’m looking at the trilogy as one whole game, and it was literally just two missions, and it only happened for 47 to get them out of the way of his immediate plans. The perception of it being him breaking away from his masters to be his own man is a romanticized version of the events that is simply h not what happened. As his discussion with Grey in the cutscene right after Dubai shows, he was always counting on Diana making things right with the ICA after Providence was gone, so they could go back to work. 47 liked the arrangement they had, that they did the ground work and he just had to focus on his targets. He harbored no ill-will toward them when he shut them down; he knew why they continued to get in his way and didn’t begrudge them that, he just needed to fulfill his promise more than he needed work from them, and shut them down out of convenience.
So if ICA were to be reestablished in future entries, especially if it’s under Diana’s administration as I suspect, then there’s no reason why he wouldn’t sign up to rejoin them.
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